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Saturday, December 18, 2010

I recently got back from out voyage to the Walter's Shoal 1250km South East of Durban. The took 4 days travel either way and we got caught up in some horrendous seas. When we eventually got there the vessel were were on called the Thomas B Davie did a quick servey of the area and generated a contour map of the southern portion of the reef.

Walter Shoal 1250km from Durban

The first day was rather rough but we still got some good Cape Tail, The biggest being 17kg. The conditions were not great and we spent the second of the 4 days at the shoal on board as the swell was up to 12m and the wind was pumping properly. We managed to get in the next day and Karl Maingard got a really good Cape Yellow Tail of over 25kg. But we had not found a really good spot, well not one with hundreds of fish at least.That afternoon the Boys from The Cape Niel Barnard and Jan Nel found a great spot, there were hundreds of Galapagos sharks and some good amberjack. Niel also shot a really big White Kingfish a kind of cross between an Amberjack and Kingfish and a Rubberlips.

Chris Coates 16kg Cape Tail & Karl Maingard 25kg Cape Yellow Tail

The spot furthermost south on the Shoal seemed to be the place and we headed there on the last morning. The conditions were the best we had had on the trip and we greeted by some nice clean water around 20m vis and 19 deg. There were loads of sharks and every time they came in so did the Tail and Amberjack.
We got a great mixed bag with some good Tropicals, Greater Amberjack and Cape Tail. Jeremy Williams got a good tropical of 16kg and a big Tail. Niel got a Tail of 17kg amongst some other good fish.

A good mixed bag of fish at the Walter Shoal

I had a really good day with a 16kg Amberjack, a 15kg Tail, a 12kg Tropical, and an 11.955kg White Kingfish. Bringing my PB's broken on the trip to 4 .... not too many trips you can achieve this!
The high light was realising that the White Kingfish (Psuedocaranx Dentex) was double the current IUSA world spearfishing record. We took care to measure and weigh the fish according to the rules and have applied for the record.